Game 6--Jarl vs Rask 35pts (REMATCH)

After my first defeat of the night, another guy asked if I wanted to play a game at 35pts-- he was using the Rask list he lent to the TO at the Hardcore event last Saturday.

We set up terrain and rolled the Ammunition Run scenario which I played against Garryth last week.

We Rolled off and I nabbed the first turn.

Jarl put Quicken on the Fenns and advanced, pretty standard.  The Fennblades ran 16" but instead of exposing them like a huge line, I put 3 forward sort of screening the rest of the unit.  Everything else ran up behind them.

My opponent ran everything up and used Rask's feat (friendly models in his control area can't be targeted by attacks or charges from >5" away).

I basically scooted forward a little bit and counter-feated with Jarl.

One unit of Gators got Dirge of Mists and ran to engage some of my forward Fennblades.  Rask walked up behind a wall and put Fury on his Swamp Horror.  I placed the clouds so that a little sliver of the middle objective was visible to the Swamp Horror, and he charged and killed it.  1CP to Rask.  The second gator unit got March and charged from the forest they were in and killed my objective, putting rask at 2CPs.  Both witch doctors used zombify on the gator units.

It bears mentioning that at this point, I had to roll a command check because the gators had Terror from Dirge.  And the Fennblades failed.  Craaaaaap.  My opponent said to forget it because that would be game over.  So, we continued.

Dropping the pretense of competition, the game took on a more educational posture from hereon in.  We discussed the best course of action for the fennblades-- They ended up managing to charge the front line of engaging gators, and 3 managed to charge the swamp horror, and they killed the gators and almost killed the Swamp Horror.  (It bears mentioning that in 6 games, this is the first time I've felt good about them).  Jarl toed into the zone, cast MB and shot the swamp horror, boosted damage, and finished it off.  MB bounced onto Rask and did a couple of points I think.

His turn, he decided he couldn't attrition against trolls and that he should go for an assassination-- He moved Rask out from behind the wall and used his energy siphon shot and took one of my Fury and used it to boost damage on Jarl and did a respectable amount.  The two witch doctors managed to do some sac strikes and got Jarl down to 6 boxes, but they couldn't seal the deal.

My turn, the fennblades get out of the way and do some attacks and maybe kill a gator.  The Mauler charges his Wrastler (the only beast left on his side) for 11 damage on the charge, then hits it again, and gets headbutt from his chain attack, and then manages to do like 2 points every attack after that.  Lame, Mauler, Lame.  I then take my Bomber and run up and beat the Wrastler the rest of the way to death--Rask now has nothing to transfer to.

Jarl stands still and takes two fully boosted shots at Rask (-3 to damage), and finishes him off

Jarl Wins-Assassination

Finally! A win!

Now, this is largely due to my opponent being gracious, so I can't really claim that my strategic mind was better than his or anything like that.  I just managed to take advantage of a failed assassination attempt.

Overall, I thought I played the list pretty well--For the first time, the Mauler felt like he belonged!  After my last game with just the Bomber and the Impaler, 2 beasts just didn't feel like enough.  I think keeping the Mauler as a second wave behind the fennblades and being more aggressive about using him is a good way to go.

DLair Hardcore Game 1--Jarl vs Rask 35pts

Back from the Soft-Hardcore event up at DLair, had a good time!  Suffered two pretty crushing defeats, but for games 3 and 4 with Jarl (and Trolls) that's to be expected.  Pretty small turnout overall (5 of us, plus the TO), so the event wrapped up pretty quickly.

Game 1, I got the bye and played the TO using one of the players' Blindwater Congregation.

I brought the same Jarl list I've been running:
Jarl
-Mauler
-Bomber
-Impaler
-Runebearer
Max Fennblades w/ UA
Fell Caller
Whelps

he brought:
Rask
-Wrastler
-Swamp Horror
Max Gatorman Posse
Max Gatorman Posse
2 Gatorman Witch Doctors

We rolled and I got first turn.

Top of 1: I advance Jarl up, put Tactical Supremacy on myself and put Quicken on the Fennblades who advanced 8"--I wanted to try and keep from getting too exposed early on. The Beasts basically just advance and rile/run for the correct amount of Fury.  I accidentally advanced the Mauler out of Jarl's Control Area, but Tactical supremacy at the end of my turn let Jarl side-step to get the Mauler back in.

Bottom of 1: Pretty much the same thing.  Stuff ran, a few Gatormen toed the edge of the zone, and chanted Dirge of Mists for +1 DEF and Terror. (DEF 13 Overall)

Top of 2: Let me say first that 5 minute turns are a bitch.  Moving forward, I see the chance to alpha-strike.  With the Gators' ability to WRECK living models (so, everything I have), it seemed important to get there first.  Jarl tried some Magic Bullet shenanigans, attempting to bounce it off of a Posse member into a Witch Doctor, but I didn't manage to kill either.  Meanwhile, the Fell Caller calls +2 MAT on the Fennblades, who minifeat and charge-- about 6/12 manage to engage Gators-- and then it all goes wrong.  At MAT 8 rolling against DEF 13, 4/6 Fennblades miss their attacks, and the ones that hit barely scratch the gators.  Moving the whole unit and doing those attacks (none of which were lethal) took up a great deal of time.  Once that was finished, I barely had time to rile the Bomber for more fury before time ran out.

Bottom of 2: After my Fennblades just bounced off the wall of Gatormen, they retaliated, and wiped all of them out. Some who were not already engaged managed to engage others further back in the unit, and the Fenns took heavy losses.  Not much happened, just an attrition war going against me.

Top of 3: Concerned about time, I completely space out and blow by the remaining Fennblades' Vengeance Moves/Attacks.  The Fennblades activate normally, and continue to miss attack rolls and underperform on damage rolls.  I see a chance with Jarl to take a shot at Rask (who is sitting on several fury and 2 largely unused warbeasts, so the Impaler puts his animus on Jarl, and Jarl takes a shot... and misses.  His second shot hits and does a respectable amount of damage (which is immediately transferred).  The Mauler charges and kills a Gatorman, and I pretty much ran out of time for everyone else.

Bottom of 3: My opponent sees a chance to go for the assassination.  One Witch Doctor walks up and uses Sacrificial Strike to kill a Fennblade and open up a charge lane.  Then, 3 Posse charge Jarl and beat him to feakin' death.

Rask wins by Assassination.

Looking back at it, I think a lot of went wrong came down to dice-- Charging at -6 against models with 8 Boxes and Tough was going to be a tall order, but I didn't expect 66% of them to miss their 5-to-hit rolls.  Yikes.  Overall, I'm feeling pretty down on the Fenns at this point, but I'm trying to give them their due and get some more experience with them.

My battlegroup ended up being largely irrelevant in the game-- being so short on time, and not having any particularly juicy targets for the bomber (everything in the list had boxes), he ended up just being a Fury battery.  The Mauler charged and killed a Gatorman, but he should have been doing way more than that.  My major issue is time, I just don't really know how I would have activated all of that meaningfully in 5 minutes--at least at this stage, given my lack of familiarity with Trolls.

I'm not really sure how I could have defended better against the Assassination, probably just placing Jarl more centrally to have more stuff in the way.